Nikki Haley Campaigns for GOP Nomination 1/13/24

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, Congresswoman Ashley Hinson.

Hey, fellow Iowans. Thanks for coming out today. Are we hardy or what? A blizzard isn't going to deter us, right? Are we excited to get out in caucus on Monday? Yay. (02:23) Well, I'm Ashley Hinson. I actually represent the district just in the north of you all here in Johnson County. It's my pleasure to be with you today, kind of subbing in for your Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who unfortunately had a little bit of travel trauma, she actually got rear-ended by a semi on her way here, so pray for her. She's fine. I've already talked to her, but it is so important that we send her back to Washington DC and we send a Republican Congress back to Washington DC in 2024, because we have to fire Joe Biden and we need to be able to enable a Republican agenda to move forward. So it is so important that we do that. (03:00) How many of you agree that Joe Biden is taking our country in the wrong direction? Lot of hands, lot of hands. Absolutely. Well, we have a very good chance, and thank goodness we have some Republican candidates, great Republican candidates like my friend Nikki Haley, who are willing to take on Joe Biden and are willing to present ideas of how we're going to move our country forward. And I think it's important to talk about why the Iowa caucuses still deserve to be first in the nation. How many of you have loved getting to know all the candidates through this process? Have you been paying attention? Of course you have. (03:35) Well, I think it's really important that media, make sure you're covering this, writing this down. The authenticity, the access to candidates, the one-on-one experiences only in Iowa with the caucuses, could you be having a beer in your basement with a candidate or playing an arcade game at the Iowa State Fair with a candidate. Our process is so unique, so transparent, and so authentic, and we take that very seriously as Iowans. Yes, we do. (03:58) So now I want to say a few words about my friend Nikki Haley. You talk about why she's running, she's running to reign in wasteful spending. She's running to secure our border and she's running to be strong where President Joe Biden is not. He is failing our country and I'm so looking forward to hearing what she has to say today. So please give a warm Iowa welcome to Ambassador Nikki Haley.

Thank you so much. Oh, what a great crowd. Thank you. So get excited, two days until caucus. I can't believe it. We've been campaigning here for 11 months and we have done, I forgot how many town halls, shaking every hand, answering every question, being the last person to leave, and we have loved every minute of it, truly. Whether it was being at the Iowa State Fair, to the women's basketball game, to really just getting to meet farmers and drive a combine, everything about our time in Iowa has been great. So I am excited that we're two days out until caucus, but I know you were excited that we're two days out, because guess what that means for you, in two days no more commercials, no more mail, no more text messages. (05:25) As the first in the South Carolina, we vote right after New Hampshire, we always loved the direct access to presidential candidates. We loved that they would come through, but we would love to see them go. So I know exactly what that means. Listen, you have a choice to make. This is go time. All eyes are on Iowa and you get it. You know the responsibility that comes with being first. You know that you're setting the tone for where the country's going to be. Look at where we are now. The tone is not good and you don't have to turn on the news to see that the tone's not good. We're $34 trillion in debt. We're having to borrow money just to make our interest payments. China owns some of that debt. (06:15) You go and you look at the fact that right now one in six Americans can't afford their utility bill. 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. 50% of Americans can't afford diapers. Homelessness is up 12% and we've got inflation that's still continuing to rise. It's a problem. But there is light at the end of the tunnel and it happens when you elect an accountant to the White House so that somebody can clean it up for the first time. The way we'll do that, we'll start with our economy and the economy will claw back the $100 billion of unspent COVID dollars that are out there. Instead of 87,000 IRS agents going after middle America, we'll go after the hundreds of billions of dollars of COVID fraud. One out of every $7 was spent fraudulently. If 8% of our budget is interest, quit borrowing. Cut up the credit cards. You have to balance a budget every day. I had to balance a budget as governor. Why is congress the only group that refuses to balance a budget? (07:19) We'll stop the spending. We'll stop the borrowing. We'll eliminate the earmarks and pet projects and I will veto any spending bill that doesn't take us back to pre COVID levels. That will save us trillions. Then we will go and say that we're going to take as many federal programs as we can and send them down to the state level. That will reduce the size of the federal government, but it will empower people on the ground. Think education, think healthcare, think welfare, think mental health if all of those resources were on the state level. And then we know that the richer getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. We need to let the middle class breathe, and so we're going to eliminate the federal gas and diesel tax in this country. We're going to cut taxes on the middle class and simplify the brackets and we're going to make small business tax cuts permanent. (08:08) They made the corporate tax cuts permanent, but they made the small business tax cuts temporary. Small businesses are the heartbeat of our country. We need to treat them that way. When it comes to education, only 31% of eighth graders in our country right now are proficient in reading. Think about that. Only 27% of eighth graders are proficient in math. If we don't do something soon, we're going to be in a world of hurt 10 years from now. So we're going to start by doing what we did in South Carolina. We knew if a child couldn't read by third grade, they were four times less likely to graduate high school. So instead of sending those kids forward, hold those kids back, bring in their parents, let's do reading remediation. Let's set them up for success. We've got to get our kids reading again. (08:55) Then we should have complete transparency in the classroom. No parent should ever wonder what's being said or taught to their child in school. So we will put all of those curriculums online for every parent to see, and every parent needs to be able to decide where their child goes to school and how they get educated. (09:20) We have to stop mandating education based on a zip code. Every child deserves a good education. And then let's start building things in America again. Let's put vocational classes back into our high schools. South Carolina, we had apprenticeships all over our state. We taught our kids how to build the things we were making. And then I have to say, we love our boys, but we have to raise strong girls. I'm talking all you girl dads and all you strong moms. We have to raise strong girls, because strong girls become strong women and strong women become strong leaders and none of that happens if you have biological boys playing in girl sports. We've got to cut that out. (10:00) Then when it comes to the border, it truly is a dereliction of duty. I can't believe we're watching what's happening in America right now. We've got to get it under control. As governor of South Carolina, I passed the toughest illegal immigration law in the country. President Obama sued us over it and we won. We will do what we did in South Carolina and go national with it. We will do a national E-Verify program that requires businesses to have to prove that the people they hire in this country legally. We will defund sanctuary cities once and for all. No more safe havens in America. (10:47) We'll put 25,000 border patrol and ICE agents on the ground and let them do their job. And then we'll go back to the Remain in Mexico policy and not even let illegals step on American soil to start with. And instead of catch and release, we'll go to catch and deport. You've got to send them back. That's the only way to stop them from being incentivized to come here in the first place. We will close the border, but then we also have to remember that we have to take care of those who take care of us. We have got to start taking care of our veterans in this country. Over 35,000 of our veterans are homeless. One in three suffers from PTSD or thoughts of suicide. We lose 22 heroes a day to suicide. (11:39) If a veteran needs a doctor's appointment at the VA, on average it takes 29 days. Why 29 days? Because on the 30th day, they get to go to the doctor or hospital of their choice. So midway through the 29 days, they get a call to reschedule. It's shameful how we treat our veterans. So I think it's important that we let them know that we're going to take care of them for the long haul. My husband is a combat veteran. He served in Afghanistan. The day he came home to us, that was a lot of prayers answered, but that was the easy part. When we got home, life got hard. He couldn't hear loud noises, he couldn't be in crowds. Life had passed him by for the year that he was gone and the transition was tough. We can't just love them when they're gone. We got to love our men and women when they come back home too. (12:38) So we'll make sure we have telehealth and give them the mental health care they need, right when they need it. We will let them go to the doctor or hospital of their choice, they've earned that right. And I think the best way that we take care of veterans healthcare is I think every member of Congress should have to get their healthcare from the VA and you watch how fast that gets fixed. You know it'll get fixed well. (13:02) And there were two things in America. There are two things that Russia, China and Iran never wanted us to have. They didn't want us to have a strong military and they didn't want us to be energy independent. We won't just be energy independent, we'll be energy dominant. We will get the EPA out of the way. Right now they care more about sagebrush lizards than they do about whether we can afford our utility bill. We'll make sure that we get the EPA out of the way. We'll speed up the permitting. We'll allow the Keystone Pipeline. We'll export as much liquified natural gas as we can. We'll do nuclear power and yes, we will do biofuels. We'll turn it into the industry we know it can be. (13:42) And when you do that, that includes supporting the renewable fuel standard, let's don't just do enough to have the energy we need. Let's turn the energy industry into an economic powerhouse that will help us with the economy, that will help us get the inflation down. And not only that, that's a national security saving if we do that. So we know the domestic policies that we need to have, but now let's talk about national security. (14:11) We know that the world is on fire. We see it. We've got a war in Europe. We've got a war in the Middle East. We've got North Korea testing intercontinental ballistic missiles that are capable of hitting US. China's on the march. But right now all you're hearing is people saying, "Do we support Ukraine or do we support Israel? Do we support Israel or do we secure the border?" Don't let them lie to you like that. That's a false premise and they know it. Now, I will be the first person to say, "We should never give a country cash, friend or foe, because you can't follow it and you can't hold it accountable." (14:54) If you are one of those people that are saying, "Why should we care about Ukraine?" You are right to ask that question. The problem is no one is giving you the answer. I'm going to give you the answer. We saw every day at the United Nations terrorists, thugs and dictators always tell us what they're going to do. They're amazingly transparent. Hamas said they were going to go into Israel. They did. China said they were going to take Hong Kong. We watched it during COVID. Russia said they were going to invade Ukraine. It happened. China says Taiwan is next. We better believe them. Russia said once they take Ukraine, Poland and the Baltics are next. Those are NATO countries. That puts America at war. This is about preventing war. It's always been about preventing war. (15:45) That's why we should give Ukraine the equipment and ammunition they need to win. Russia has hit rock bottom. We know that. They've lost 87% of their troops that started the war. They raised the draft age in Russia to 65. They're getting drones from Iran and missiles from North Korea. Putin's hit rock bottom. If we support Ukraine, that's only 3.5% of our defense budget. That's it. The Europeans are spending more than that and they should. It's their neighborhood. (16:18) Now when it comes to Israel, God help us if we don't get this one right. Israel is a bright spot in a tough neighborhood. They are the tip of the spear when it comes to defeating terrorism. If you ask, "Why should we care about Israel?" The reason we should care about Israel is because on that horrific day of October 7th, when they beheaded those people and burned those babies alive and took those girls from the concert and raped them and dragged their naked bodies through the streets of Gaza, what did they say? Death to Israel. Death to America. That's why we care about Israel. If we support Ukraine and we support Israel, that's only 5% of our defense budget. Now, the other option they give you is, "Oh, but we should be securing our border." That's priority number one. No excuses to not secure the border. No excuses to allow anybody that is not here legally to stay. (17:28) America right now is acting like it's September 10th. We better remember what September 12th felt like. It only takes one person to cause the 9/11 moment. If we support Ukraine and we support Israel and we secure the border, that's less than 20% of Biden's green subsidies, so don't let anyone tell you you have to choose. We choose national security. We choose preventing war. We choose protecting Americans. That should always be the case. There's a reason the Taiwanese want the US and the West to support the Ukrainians, because they know if Ukraine wins, China won't invade Taiwan. There's a reason the Ukrainians want the US and the West to support Israel, because they know if Iran wins, Russia wins. China, Russia and Iran are bound together in an unholy alliance and they all hate freedom, democracy, and above all things America. (18:31) So we need to be smart. We need to prevent more. We need to protect Americans. We know how to do that, so we have the answers to the domestic side. We have the answers to the national security side. Now, how do we make it happen? We have to acknowledge some hard truths. Republicans have lost the last seven out of eight popular votes for president. That's nothing to be proud of. We should want to win the majority of Americans, but the only way we're going to win is if we elect a new conservative leader and leave the negativity and the baggage behind and move forward with new solutions. (19:20) Now, I always speak in hard truths and you'll see when I'm your president, I over communicate. I tell you everything because I want you to know everything I know. I tell you what I'm thinking so that you know how it's going to happen. That's how I did it as governor and as ambassador because it's better when we're all doing this together. Another hard truth, I think President Trump was the right president at the right time. I agree with a lot of his policies, but rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him. You know I'm right. Chaos follows him and we can't have a country in disarray and a world on fire and go through four more years of chaos. We won't survive it. You don't defeat Democrat chaos with Republican chaos. (20:13) And more than anything, what should send a chill up your spine, is we cannot afford a President Kamala Harris and we can't go through another nail biter of an election and take that chance. You can look at any of the polls, any of the general election polls that show head to head with Biden. Everyone, you see him, Ron doesn't beat Biden, Trump against Biden, they're head-to-head. On a good day Trump might be up by two points. That's margin of error. It would be a nail biter of an election. I'm in every one of those polls. I defeat Biden by double digits, by 17 points. (21:02) Do you know what that means? That's more than the presidency. That's house. That's the summit. That's governorships. That's all the way down the school board. You win by double digits, that's a mandate going into DC that we're going to stop the wasteful spending and get our economy back on track. That's a mandate that we'll get our kids reading again and go back to the basics on education. That's a mandate to secure our border with no more excuses. That's a mandate to bring law and order back to our country. And that's a mandate for a strong America that we can all be proud of. Don't you want that?

Yes.

Because we could have that. But in order to have that, it's going to take a lot of courage. Courage from everybody in this room. Courage for me to run and courage for every one of you to know. Don't complain about what happens in a general election if you don't play in this caucus. It matters. When I announced, someone asked me why I was running and I said, "My parents came here 50 years ago to an America that was strong and proud and full of opportunities. I want them to know that country again." I'm doing this for my husband Michael and his military brothers and sisters. I need them to know their sacrifice matters. That we do love our country. I'm doing this for my daughter, Rena, who's here with us today, who just got married and I saw how hard it was for her and her husband to buy a home. (22:36) The average home buyer now in America is 49 years old. The American dream is leaving us. And I'm doing this for my son who is also here with me today, and he's a senior in college and I am tired of watching him struggle on what to write in a paper because he thinks that's the only way to make an A. That's wrong. We can't have that. 81% of Americans now don't think their kids are going to live as good of a life as we did. We can't be okay with that. I'm not okay with that. The reason I'm doing this, I don't want my kids to live this way. I don't want to worry about what life's going to be like 10, 20 years from now. But I can tell you this, if you will join with me in this movement, if you will caucus for us on Monday, I promise you that our best days are yet to come. Thank you very much. God bless you. I appreciate it.